Erik Pineda

By its price alone, at $US199, the HTC Droid DNA is an open invite for Christmas shoppers but with the handset’s circulation marked by mostly positive feedbacks, this 1080p smartphone is set to draw more attention as the shopping season heats up.

Deeper probes of the Nexus 4 revealed that in specific cases and locations the Google smartphone is able to access LTE networks in the United States and Canada, numerous blog reports said.

The feared apocalypse will not happen on Dec 21, the Vatican said on Wednesday, rejecting suggestions, based wholly on the Mayan Long Count calendar calculation, that doomsday has been preset and will unleash its fury Friday next week.

There was a side melee that erupted during the epic Pacquiao-Marquez battle in Las Vegas last weekend, reports said.

It is a very, merry Christmas indeed in China this December and Nokia and HTC have decided to crash the party. The two phone makers are releasing their latest handsets to the Chinese market, touted by experts to outpace the United States soon as the most lucrative place to sell gadgets.

It may not be as hot as it was but the Angry Birds fever that started three years ago remains in the right trajectory, hitting the intended marks and breaking new grounds, including a full-length movie set for theatrical showing on 2016.

Apple still impresses when it comes to gadget craftsmanship, according to Time Magazine, and for the near-to-end 2012 the highly-respected weekly publication bestowed its highest honour to the tech giant’s popular smartphone – the iPhone 5.

Great news for international owners of the Galaxy Note 2. The JellyBean 4.1.2 has started rolling out and reports from Sam Mobile indicated that the patch has already reached Polish fans of the bestselling phablet.

Fancy for a dual-boot or even multi-boot Nexus 7? Folks at XDA Developers claim it is now possible for the Google tablet to carry two or more mobile OS, thanks to the newly-created MultiROM.

Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, will miss out the CES 2013 is Las Vegas next month despite recent hints from the South Korean tech giant that it is working on ‘Something New’ that will be unveiled in the early months of Q1 2013, reports said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard remains the popular choice among voters as Australia’s prime minister but the trouble is she would easily lose out to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, the last Newspoll-News Ltd 2012 survey said.

The Nexus 4 is a definite magnet especially for Android power users but since this signature Google smartphone will not resume shipment until January 2013, looking out for the alternative this Christmas is the best way to taste its flavour.

LG is in celebration mode following the South Korean firm’s announcement at the start of the week that over 10 million units of the Optimus L smartphone lines have reached global consumers since the device was launched this year.

Google has good things going for its Nexus gadget lines, which mostly led to stock outs since their debut, but glitches in the Android system appears to be hampering the products’ total commercial breakout.

Nokia’s Lumia 920 will soon deploy on more carriers and retailers in the United Kingdom beginning January 2013, the Finnish mobile phone maker said this week, adding that the supply problems bogging down the handset’s global distribution will be resolved at around the same time.

Much have been said about the next Galaxy S smartphone from Samsung, which according to blog sites will be deployed with a more powerful quad-core processor, higher image density of 441 ppi and will take the name Galaxy S4.

New voter enrolments or updating the current electoral database will likely impact negatively on Coalition support, a new study said, potentially shaving off marginal numbers from the opposition and swinging them over either to the government or the Australian Greens, reports said.

What actually are you getting by snapping up Google’s Nexus 7, which recently has been named by UK-based tech site T3 as 2012’s ‘Gadget of the Year’?

HTC would like to call this a different smartphone from the Droid DNA and J-Butterfly but the Butterfly looks and acts like its siblings, though this is another flagship phone from the Taiwan-based firm that is geared for the international market.

Google’s JellyBean has commenced its deployment for the Asus PadFone 2, initially hitting Taiwanese owners of the two-in-one gadget, with other regions likely to follow shortly.

Smartphones are getting more attractive for the holidays and HTC has pushed out another unit to get you thinking for a serious buy. The HTC One VX is not exactly a fresh issue, its market debut only fraught by delays but on Dec 7 AT&T started offering the handset for only $US49.99.

What Apple has been up to lately? Tim Cook, the tech giant’s CEO, has allowed a short glimpse of his recent concerns and that of the high-profile company he inherited from its co-founder Steve Jobs.

The well-received Nexus 7 now comes with 3G connectivity, expanding the network capability of the tablet previously released by Google (and Asus) with only Wi-Fi access.

Published price tag of the ‘full’ Asus PadFone 2 starts at over $1000 in Australia. Seems pricey on first look but the package actually delivers two devices – the standalone smartphone which then becomes a tablet when docked with a companion shell.

Nokia’s chief designer Ahtisaari has a new Lumia baby and we’ll get to see it January 2013. Touted as the most affordable Windows Phone 8 handset that is set to hit global markets, the Lumia 620 will retail at $US249.

Samsung is widely believed to unleash the Galaxy S4 on Q1 2013 but at around the same time, Taiwan’s HTC is rumored to wow the tech world anew with a new high-end smartphone known for now as M7.

The Android JellyBean 4.1 update is officially available for owners of Motorola’s Droid RAZR HD and MAXX HD and getting it is served in two ways – server initiated and manual update procedures.

Blacks Ops 2, the latest in the blockbuster Call of Duty shooting game franchise, has registered more than $1 billion of global sales, a feat that Activision said was accomplished on the game title’s first 15 days of commercial availability.

The Ice Cream Sandwich on Motorola’s latest Android handsets, the Droid RAZR HD and the Droid MAXX HD, is gradually being bumped off in favour of the more flavourful JellyBean, Motorola Mobility has announced via Twitter this week.